


Small Town Gossip

by Diary



Category: Where the Heart Is (2000)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Awkward Conversations, Bechdel Test Pass, Communication, Established Forney Hull/Novalee Nation, Established Relationship, F/M, Family, Friendship/Love, Gossip, Insecurity, Late Night Conversations, Lexie Coop & Novalee Nation Friendship, POV Female Character, POV Novalee Nation, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-30
Updated: 2016-07-30
Packaged: 2018-07-27 16:11:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,703
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7625203
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Diary/pseuds/Diary
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hearing certain things makes Novalee question her marriage to Forney. Complete.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Small Town Gossip

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own Where the Heart Is.

Novalee knows how easily gossip starts in small towns. More than once, someone told Willy Jack she was cheating on him just because she smiled at someone while she was waiting tables.

(More than once, someone told her Willy Jack was cheating on her, and at the time, she’d known better to believe them, but now, when she thinks about it-)

She’s heard Forney was kissing some pretty little blonde girl with bubble-gum lip gloss and kitten heels outside the Holiday Inn.

Lexie scoffs. “Sure, honey. He helped deliver Americus, waited near seven years for you to come to your senses and see what was in front of you, married you less than a year after you did, and now, he’s going to risk you and Americus over some girl. I don’t know who saw what, but they didn’t see that.”

If- she doesn’t understand why she keeps going back to this. This doubt and insecurity is not her. She knows Forney better than this.

(She sees Willy Jack more clearly now than she ever did then.)

Whenever she’s not out of town on an assignment, every night before they go to sleep, he kisses her left cheek, her right, her nose, her chin, and her forehead before pressing a kiss against her lips. “I love you, Novalee.”

God knows he loves Americus.

Almost twelve, Americus wants to wear makeup, and while Novaleee hadn’t been sure, Forney had helped find brands guaranteed not to have been tested on animals and let her practice putting it on his face, even though Novalee had offered her own face. Heels, though, anything other than Mary-Janes, he’d been firm on her not wearing, and had presented study after study on why not.

Americus had read the studies, and to Novalee’s relief, agreed with Forney.

Still, Americus is going through changes, changes a woman can understand better than a man reading book after book ever can, and in some ways, she’s gotten closer to Novalee.

If Forney’s unhappy- she wishes she knew he’d just tell her, but Lexie isn’t completely right. Forney wasn’t exactly waiting. She knows, if she’d found a nice man who loved her and Americus and decided to marry him, Forney would have probably helped plan the wedding, walked her down the aisle, and if there was a honeymoon, kept Americus during it.

One of the few times they’ve gotten ugly in arguing was about whether he should have told her he loved her (she had no response to the point she could have told him).

It’s just, the thought he could be unhappy had never crossed her mind until now. He likes -or she thought he did- his job as fact-checker and editor at the local newspaper. Some colleges have started doing a new thing where classes can be taken on the internet, and he and Americus have been looking into this. None of them like how often she has out-of-town assignments, but she’s been building up her career and gotten several more awards.

When she’s out-of-town, she calls him and Americus every night and morning, and he always says, ‘I can’t wait to see you, Novalee. I love you.’

They don’t have sex anywhere near as much as they did when they first got married, but even Lexie tells her this is normal, and unless one of them is getting frustrated, there’s nothing to worry about.

She’s not, but the thought he might be-

“He’s the best relationship I’ve ever had, Lexie. And I’m the only real one he’s ever had. But what if it’s not enough? I don’t- most of the wives I saw, I knew they weren’t good ones. I guess I never really thought me and Willy Jack would ever end up marrying.”

Lexie sighs. “Sweetheart, shouldn’t you be talking to Forney about this?”

“I will,” she protests. “I’m just- using you as practise?”

“Thanks,” is Lexie’s dry response. “Novalee, whatever thoughts you had about how wives and husbands should be, you need to get rid of them. Look at me. Look at how good you and Forney are.”

“And,” she adds, “if, God forbid, he is cheating, which he isn’t, you should be angry, not wondering what you did wrong and being sorry that he’s unhappy.”

Novalee supposes, if Forney did ever cheat, she would be angry, but she also can’t help but think it might partly be her fault. She hasn’t been insecure in a long time, but now, all the reasons she had for lying are rearing back up.

If not for Americus- what would a genius (he showed her his IQ scoring once, and she’d focused on the _above average intelligence_ part rather than listening to him explaining about the numbers proving he wasn’t one) from old money want with a trailer trash girl who hadn’t had a diploma, home, or even a job?

Well, when she hadn’t been pregnant, plenty besides Willy Jack wanted one thing from her, but she doubts Forney would have even wanted this.

Sure, she has a home, a G.E.D., college credits, and a steady job, now, but most of this is because of him, Lexie, Sister Husband, and other people who have come, gone, and stayed in her life.

More than the insecurity, though is-

Forney uses his intelligence to help make the world better, and he’s kind in a way she never saw much of growing up.

He gets into arguments with TV characters, will read definitions from the dictionary and thesaurus and passages from books and articles just to try to win an argument, and will go so far as to bribe Lexie and Ernie’s kids into reading. He got himself put in handcuffs just so Novalee could get to her baby, he took care of Mary Elizabeth at the expense of his education, and sometimes, he still forgets to eat lunch if Novalee or Americus doesn’t call and get someone at the newspaper to take his computer away and put his lunch in front of him. He doesn’t complain when Lexie and Ernie need a last minute babysitter, and he can spend hours listening to most people talk.

When he holds her at night before they fall asleep, and when they make love, he always makes her feel safe, loved, and beautiful.

She wants to see him smile, hear his laugh, and know he feels safe and loved, too. She wants him to know he has a home and people who love him. Just like he helped her find her dreams, she wants to help him achieve his dreams.

If she can’t, though, she was willing to let him go, once.

“I’m taking your child tonight,” Lexie declares. “She can help Cherry with that Spanish project. You, talk to Forney, Novalee.”

“Thanks, Lexie. What project?”

“From what I understand, it’s an art project. She’s doing a report on some Spanish painting. What that has to do with the language-” Lexie shrugs. “Maybe Americus can explain it to me once she’s done helping.”

“Thank you,” Novalee repeats.

Kissing her cheek, Lexie winks. “I’ll go round her and the others up. You haven’t seen my lasso, have you?”

“Lexie, you know that Praline is going to throw a fit if you try to do that again!”

“Oh, don’t worry,” Lexie sighs. Grumbling, she admits, “Carol Ann made a big fuss about me doing that to Cody, and Ernie and I eventually agreed I wouldn’t.”

…

She hears Forney come in.

“Hey,” he calls. “I got your message. Did you make sure Lexie took Americus’s diary?”

Coming into the kitchen, he kisses her cheek.

“Yeah,” she answers.

“I’m glad Lexie decided to take her for tonight,” Forney says. “There’s something I need to talk to you about. Both of you, actually, but I thought it might be better to talk to you first.”

“Oh? What about? Before you do, are you hungry?”

Getting a soda, he sits down. “I told you I ate at work."

“Oh, right,” she says. “I ate earlier, too.”

Reaching over, he takes her hand. “Do you remember telling me about my cousin Shyla O’Quinn?”

She tries to think. “The nun?”

He nods. “Well, Mercy, her daughter, just arrived. I would have called, but she literally showed up this afternoon, and in between her and Sammie’s newest article- She’s a florist, and as luck would have it, Tommy Lincoln down at the funeral home is looking for a new one. I checked her into the Holiday Inn, but I thought we could talk about her living here until she gets settled in enough to rent an apartment.”

He looks at her with honest, earnest eyes, and she almost laughs and is a little scared at how close to crying she feels like.

“Of course,” she manages to say. “She’s family. As long as she and Americus get along- what’s she look like?”

“Just like Shyla,” he answers. “Oh, right, you’ve only ever seen pictures of her in her full habit. Pretty. Curly, blonde hair, big, grey-green eyes. She dresses a little younger than she probably should, but at least, she sticks to relatively sensible heels.”

Letting out a breath, Novalee gets up, goes over, and pulls Forney’s chair out so she can sit in his lap. Leaning into him and feeling his unsure, comforting hands settling on her back, she admits, “I know I shouldn’t have, but I was- We need to talk. It’s not about Mercy living here.”

“Okay,” he says. “Novalee, whatever it is, we can figure it out. Together. I promise.”

…

“Sometimes, even after all these years, this is all new and confusing to me, too,” he tells her. “But, Novalee, I promise, I’d never cheat on you.”

“And you’d tell me if you were unhappy?”

“Yes. It’s the same for you, isn’t it?”

“It is,” she promises. Curling closer, she kisses him. “Since Americus is staying with Lexie, let’s go to bed early tonight.”

Nodding, he smiles the smile her heart still flutters every time she sees it. “I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

Giggling, she gets up, tugs him towards the bedroom, and feels warmth spread through her at the soft, happy look he gives her as he follows. 


End file.
